A Home Office minister has said it is “utter nonsense” to suggest Keir Starmer is inciting violence against Nigel Farage and accused Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf of “utter snowflakery”.

Mike Tapp, the migration minister, said the claim was “offensive” and “ridiculous” and that there is “no way on earth” that the PM, himself, or any other MP would want harm to come to their opponents.

“Of course, we want all members of parliament to be safe, and that’s absolutely important, and no-one wants any harm to come to Nigel Farage,” Mr Tapp told Times Radio.

“But, look, if we want to say what we want to say, then we’re in our rights to do that, as are they. That’s freedom of speech. This is utter snowflakery from Zia Yusuf, who claims that we’re diminishing freedom of speech whilst at the same time being allowed to say what he wants.”

A Home Office minister has said it is ‘utter nonsense’ to suggest Keir Starmer is inciting violence against Nigel Farage(Image: PA)

Mr Tapp added to Sky News: “It’s offensive, it’s ridiculous. There’s no way on earth the Prime Minister, myself, or any MP across the house, from all parties by the way, that would want any harm to come to another Member of Parliament.”

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It comes after Mr Yusuf, Reform UK’s head of policy, accused Mr Starmer of “inciting violence” against Mr Farage in his speech to the Labour Party conference on Tuesday. He said the PM will be held “squarely responsible for his actions” if anything happens to Mr Farage.

He said: “What we have seen over the last 48 hours is the most extraordinary, vindictive, vicious use of inflammatory language to demonise Nigel Farage, the man who Keir Starmer knows now he cannot beat at the ballot box, so he’s embarked on a campaign with his Cabinet to incite violence against him.

Mike Tapp, the migration minister, said the claim was ‘offensive’ and ‘ridiculous’(Image: Sky News)

“(The PM) said we need to, quote, go into battle. He called on his supporters to go into battle with, quote, the enemy, and said that Nigel and Reform represent a threat to everyone in this country.”

He went on to say Mr Farage’s security was reduced two weeks ago by “the authorities” and linked it to the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk in the US earlier this month.

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice faced questions on social media after he wrongly claimed Mr Starmer called on supporters to “take up arms and attack”. He said: “He literally used the word ‘arms’, take up arms and attack, go for the enemy, just the most extraordinary language.”

In his speech, Keir Starmer called for his party to ‘fight Reform with everything that this movement has’(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

In his speech at Labour conference, Mr Starmer called for his party to “fight Reform with everything that this movement has”, and said that he himself will “fight with every breath I have, fight for working people, fight for the tolerant, decent, respectful Britain that I know”.

He did not directly call Mr Farage an “enemy” but argued that those who say “people who have lived here for generations” should now be deported are “an enemy of national renewal”. It was considered directed at the Reform UK leader after the PM branded Mr Farage’s policy to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain – which would put people at risk of deportation – racist.

The PM also said: “We must come together to fight Reform with everything that this movement has. We must go into that battle armed not just with words and condemnation, but with action. And that means tackling all the problems that they prey upon, all the problems.”

Former Tory Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, who recently defected to Reform UK, was among those to criticise Mr Starmer’s speech, calling it “an utter disgrace”. She was tied in knots in an interview with Channel 4 News when she was challenged about supposedly being the “party of free speech”.

It was also pointed out Reform UK has challenged the punishment of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed after calling for migrant hotels to be set on fire on the day of the Southport attack.

She was treated like a hero as she appeared at Reform’s conference earlier this month, despite her having written on social media: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.”

The Home Office said any such decision over Mr Farage’s security would have been made by an independent parliamentary security authority.